Ductal orientated sonography improves the diagnosis of pathological nipple discharge of the female breast compared with galactography.

In case of abnormal nipple discharge of the female breast galactography is a recognized radiological procedure to identify and to localize intraductal growths or other ductal abnormalities. However, it harbours several methodological problems. In ductal orientated sonography the availability of high frequency linear transducers enables us now to visualize the mammary ducts in detail. The aim of this study was to compare both methods with respect to the detection of the cause of pathological nipple discharge. Thirty-five patients were first examined by ductal orientated sonography with a 13 MHz linear transducer. The results of sonography were recorded in detail before galactography was performed. Ductal abnormalities were found by sonography in 26 patients and by galactography in 19 patients. In 24 cases both methods revealed concurring results. Among those, 17 cases showed pathological findings and seven cases had normal ducts. In nine patients sonography revealed pathological results whereas galactography was completely normal. In only two cases sonography failed to show ductal abnormalities which were detected by galactography. Our study underlines that ductal orientated sonography is a promising method of diagnosis in abnormal nipple discharge, which may be recommended to be performed routinely before galactography.